A wet day at the tail end of the holiday season, so an ideal time to round some of the coarse action on the Ouse for the summer period. Unsurprisingly bream and carp feature heavily. We are lucky to have a good head of both along the length of the middle and lower Ouse, along with a number of grass carp which were prominent in June.
Congratulations to Dan Hickman for achieving his 20lb plus target from the river this season... I say "achieiving" more like smashed it with a 26!
Then backing it up with this grass carp of 23lb is some start to the season.Your permit secretary mirrored this achievement breaking his long standing carp duck with the 15lb 4oz fish opposite, with a 12lb grassy off the top early in June. What's 10lb difference between friends? Joking aside my thanks to all our regulars who've given me tips and advice to achieve this. I appreciate it.
Another of our specimen hunters Adam Rush had a 20lber in his sights and took this stunning looking 19 on the tidal stretch... The problem was it fell to his feeder rod that was being fished in conjunction to his carp set up. A skilled piece of angling to get this specimen to the bank on 6lb line. Well done!
Bream are also common to 6lb plus on the lower Ouse. Well done to committee member Matt Baker on his 100lb haul from the lower part of the fishery. Big fish and big catches will always make the headlines. However, I've also been delighted at the results when I've got the float rod out on occasions this early part of the season. Whether this has been catches of rudd above the Mills or taking a chublet a cast to what could loosely be described as "match tactics" on the tidal stretch, this has got to be indicative of river health. (Not to be taken for granted of course) One person who does this with a lot more finesse than me is Tim Harris who is regularly taking mixed bags of silver fish to 8 - 12lb. Tim prefers an outgoing tide with casters separating out the better fish, with roach to 1/2 lb and dace to 6oz. Always good to run into you on the bank Tim.
As thoughts turn to the autumn and winter coarse species I must add a congratulations to chub fan and friend of OAPS Bill Durrant on a 7lb 0oz specimen from the tidal section. We do on occasions get reports of very big chub from pike or carp anglers, but seldom with a verified weight. Bill's fish I'm reliably informed did a quick turn on the scales. Well done mate! Talking of pike, the season recommences on the 1st October this year and we look forward to welcoming back our pike fishers. I will post a brief update on this in the coming weeks, but for now, good luck to all our permit holders. DH